Sparkle Tart by Kate Palmer

Poe's Annabel-Lee inspired ATC

Ah Edgar Allen Poe - there's something darkly romantic about both Poe and his writing, I can't tell you what my favourite piece is - it seems to change each time I read something new.  I can say I prefer his stories, dark, richly described and really creepy!  There's also a fabulous book called 'Nevermore' loosely based on Poe which I really enjoyed reading - yes it's kind of teenage romance, but it's also interestingly written.  I recently participated in a Poe swap over on the Cherry Pie Yahoo group, where we had to create ATC's inspired by a Poe poem.  I choose to create ATC's based on the poem - Annabel Lee, specifically the passage marked below in italic purple:

It was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
By the name of ANNABEL LEE;
And this maiden she lived with no other thought
Than to love and be loved by me.

I was a child and she was a child,
In this kingdom by the sea;
But we loved with a love that was more than love-
I and my Annabel Lee;
With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven
Coveted her and me.

And this was the reason that, long ago,
In this kingdom by the sea,
A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling
My beautiful Annabel Lee;
So that her highborn kinsman came
And bore her away from me,
To shut her up in a sepulchre
In this kingdom by the sea.

The angels, not half so happy in heaven,
Went envying her and me-
Yes!- that was the reason (as all men know,
In this kingdom by the sea)
That the wind came out of the cloud by night,
Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.

But our love it was stronger by far than the love
Of those who were older than we-
Of many far wiser than we-
And neither the angels in heaven above,
Nor the demons down under the sea,
Can ever dissever my soul from the soul
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee.

For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And the stars never rise but I feel the bright eyes
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side
Of my darling- my darling- my life and my bride,
In the sepulchre there by the sea,

In her tomb by the sounding sea.

If interested you can find out more about Poe and his writing from the Poe Museum online.

What I used:

• Lumiere Paints: Pearl Blue, Grape and Indigo
• Cherry Pie Stamps: R515 MONOLITH (Stonehenge), R539 Crow on branch, E8185 FULL MOON, Q492 Beauty Muse and S578 Celtic Graveyard
• Memento Inks: London Fog and Summer Sky
• Versamark ink pad
• Archival ink pads - Jet Black & Cobalt
• Lindy's Stamp Gang Moon-Glow Embossing Powder - Midnight Pewter Obsidian used on branch and crow)
• Inktense Pencils
• Prismacolour Pencils

Explore Life: Scenic Copic Card

I decided to combine 2 things I've wanted to try - colouring something Antique white and colour co-ordinating with unusual coloured background papers.  This is the finished result from my experiments, which I was totally thrilled to have accepted for PUBLICATION in the Feb 2011 issue of Vamp Stamp News.

What I used:

Copic Markers used:

• Dress - E40, E42 & E43 + Blender pen
• Hat/ Shoes - G40, G82 & G94
• Shawl - E70, E71, E74, R81, R83 & R85
• Skin - R0000, R00 & R11
• Hair - E43 & E47

Stamp Pads used:

• Memento Black ink, 
• ColorBox Chalk pads in Chestnut Roan and Dark Moss, 
• Versafine Olympia Green, 
• Brilliance Moonlight White, 
• Distress ink - Antique Linen, Old Paper,  Tattered Rose, Victorian Velvet, Black Soot

Stamps used:

• Creative Expressions unmounted plates – Elegant Ladies and More Trees
• Stampscapes – Curvilinear road, Cloud space, Foliage (sm), Cabin small
• Making Memories: Magnetic Text stamp set 'Explore'

Other items used on card:

• White Gel Pen, Stamp positioner, Champagne pearls from Joy Crafts, patterned papers, green Bazzil card, Martha Stewart Iron Gate Punch, assorted ribbon, Collections mini tag, Glossy accents

What I did:

1. Stamp Elegant Lady onto white x-PressIt blending card, using Black Memento ink.  Colour with copics as listed.
2. Mask image, and sponge on layers of Distress inks, beginning with lightest colours and adding darker colours to edges and around masked image.  
3. Using Chestnut Roan, stamp Curvilinear Road over bottom half of card, try to place lady's feet at appropriate placemon path.
4. On right side of card stamp small tree from Creative Expressions, in Dark Moss chalk ink onto background, stamp off ink onto scrap paper for lighter image.  Use stamp positioner to guide placement of all background images.
5. Stamp larger image of same tree onto left side of card using Dark moss chalk ink.
6. Stamp cabin stamp on left using Chestnut Roan chalk ink.
7. Using small foliage stamp and Dark Moss chalk ink, stamp foliage over lower edges of card, right and left sides.  Switch to Versafine Olympia Green ink and stamp more foliage over right and left - this change of ink gived the illusion of foreground and background.
8. Stamp Cloud space using Brilliance Moonlight white ink, and while wet smear with a cotton bud.
9. Use Dark Moss and black soot to darken edges and any areas which are too pale. Then remove mask.
10. Mount onto trimmed patterned paper, which has been punched on the bottom edge with Martha Stewart 'Iron Gate' punch.
11. Mount this onto complimentary patterned paper, and then onto green Bazzil base card.
12. Adhere champagne coloured mini pearls to top right edge and ribboned tag to lower left.  Tag has been coloured using same ink colours as background, stamped with 'Explore' in Memento black ink and covered with Glossy Accents.
13. Finish by accenting with white gel pen.

If you would like to watch a tutorial on how to create the Antique White colouring and the scenic background, you can watch it all on my YouTube Channel.

 

 

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Challenge No 10: Scenic Halloween Card

CHALLENGE: To create a card in category previously unattempted - ie. Halloween.....

We don't celebrate Halloween over here in Australia - well most people don't, but I saw this really cute image from The Greting Farm on the same week I received the new set of Starburst Sprays (Haunted Halloween) from Tracey at Lindy's Stamp Gang - well why not make something with them both!  This card is my surprising result...... Ithink we can all agree that it's my normal thing, I hope you also agree it's darn cute!

As Promised in my video clip, here are my Copic Colour charts for:

• Download Kate's COPIC colour chart A4
• Download Kate's COPIC colour chart LETTER size
• Download COPIC Colour Chart for A5 booklet

I know most other people turn these into PDF files and put their name on them etc, but having these be of use to someone else is more important to me than having total control and copyright over the format - SO they are in Word.docx (word 2007) format, so you can change them, fit them to your own paper size, and generally use them for your own purposes.  Please don't put your name on it and pass it off as all your own work - that's all I ask :O)

What I used:

• Digital Image from The Greeting Farm: Hallo Bride
• Pentel White gel pen (around eyes)
• Memento Dye Ink Pad: London Fog, Black
• Brilliance ink pad: Moonlight White
• Versamark Watermark ink pad and pen
• Stazon Ink Pad: Platinum
• StampIt - Crystal swirl
• Black embossing powder
• Stampscapes stamps: Reeds Lg, Crooked Limb and Scenic Sentiments Sheet 6: Skies and Seasons 
• Michelle Ward stamp Large Tree, from Crow About unmounted sheet
• Black and purple Bazzil card to mount
• xPress-It Blending cardstock
• Plastic craft tray

Products from Lindy's Stamp Gang

• From Starburst Sprays set Haunted Halloween: Witches Potion Purple, Screamin' Banshee Black and Hags' Wart Orange
• Magical Mica - Ghostly Gargoyle White
• Queen of Sheeba Silver embossing powder

Copic Colours:

• Hair: C00, C1, C3, C5, C7 & C9
• Hair Streak: B91, B95, B97 & B99 with Clear Spica over top
• Dress: V00, V01, V12, V15 & V17 
• Skin: E40, E43, E50 & E53
• Eyes: B60, B63 & B66
• Copic liner 0.3 to emphasise printed image

What I did:

1. Print Hallo Bride onto xPress-It card using Laser printer.  Trim image to size and use rest of card for background (could use any smooth white cardstock for background).
2. Colour Hallo bride image with Copic markers (colours listed above for each section).  Add a little of the clear Spica over streak in hair - for some sparkle.  Add white Pentel paint pen around eyes to make colour stand out.  Cut out image with fine tip scissors and set aside.
3. Spritz water over base of plastic craft tray, lay cardboard for background on top and spray top side of card with a LOT of extra water, let the water soak into the card - this is how you get the sprays to saok through and colour the back of the card.  Spray patches of Hag's Wart Orange Starburst Spray onto surface of card, cover about 40% of the white space.  Spray Witches' Potion Purple over remaining white space of card.  Spray some Screamin' Banshee Black over other 2 colours and then add a little more water, to keep surface wet. 
4. Pick up craft tray containing background and gently tilt to that colours run and mix.  Make sure when tilting, that you get some of the black towards each edge (if you want a background like mine).  When covered and blended as you like, leave aside to air dry (this could take anywhere between 4-24 hours depending on your climate).
5. When dry, peel card from craft tray and trim to fit card front - at this point you can choose to use the shimmery front of the card, or the more matte - reverse side of the card.
6. Stamp large tree (from Michelle Ward) on right side of background, using Versamark watermark ink and apply black embossing powder.  Tip off excess embossing powder, and then using a heat gun, heat embossing powder until it soaks in to the cardstock and becomes matte.  This is called 'over-heating' and is NOT what you are usually trying to achieve when using embossing powder - I just thought it looked better on this particular card.
7. Tear strip from scrap paper, to create a torn edge paper mask.  Lay torn edge pointing towards bottom of card, should have roughly 5cm of the coloured card peeking through.  Using Black Soor Distress ink and a sponge applicator, sponge ink onto card to create a faux-ground.  Apply ink more thickly towards edges of card and torn edge of paper.  Remove scrap paper mask and using Black Soot pad, colour edges of card with ink.
8. Using Memento ink in London Fog and black, stamp stampscapes tree and grasses across card to create scene.  Add motes of light to branch tips with Pentel white paint pen.
9. Add Crow from the Michelle Ward plate, and matching tree branch (same plate).
10. Using Versamark pen, add some cloud-like marking to top of card and brush over Ghostly Gargoyle White magical mica to colour. 
11. Stamp 'Night Music' stamp in lower right corner, using Platinum Stazon.  Using stamp positioner, repeat stamping using Versamark Watermark pad (slightly above original stamped image) and emboss with Queen of Sheeba Silver.  Again using stamp positioner, stamp between previous 2 images, using Moonlight White brilliance ink.  Let dry then go over this with Pentel white paint pen, to enhance final stamped image.
12. Apply adhesive crystal swirl below stamped words and towards top left of card.
13. Glue Hallo Bride image onto left side of scene and embellish with tiny black flowers.  Seal with Krylon gloss varnish if you like, to help prevent fading.
14. Mount scene onto purple and then black Bazzil to finish card.

If you'd like to watch this card being made, you can see it on my YouTube channel.

Challenge No 9: Moonlight Faerie using Stamps from Lindy's Stamp Gang

I received some of the stamps from Lindy's Stamp Gang in my recent stash, and one look at this gorgeous faerie and I had to use it on a card.  This was a heap of fun to make and I got to use my new StazOn gold ink pad! 

What I Used: 

• Adirondack Ink Pads: Stonewashed and Meadow
• Rainbow Pearl Foilz
• Liquid Pearls: White opal
• Stickles: Stardust
• Krylon Gold Leafing Pen
• Sharpie white paint pen
• Marvy Matchables Ink Pads: Yellow Green, Green and Light Green
  
• Memento Ink Pad - Black
• StazOn Ink Pad - Gold
• Eclipse Tape from Judikins
• Stamp positioner
• Glossy Accents

Copics

• Skin: E000, E00 & E21
• Hair: E25, E29 & E31
• Wings: V09, V12, V15 & V17
• Dress: YG0000, YG01, YG03 & YG25

Lindy's Stamp Gang Products

• Stamps all from Lindy's Stamp Gang, plates Faerie Thyme Gang and Bamboo Meadows
• Brass fern charm
• Fern - Fabulous Filagree
• Magical Micas - Cathedral Pine and Bells of Ireland
• Glitz Spritz - Desert Moon Endless Sky

What I did:

1. Stamp faerie stamp onto square piece xPressIt blending card, using Memento black ink.  Stamp once more onto scrap paper or Eclipse tape and create a mask.
2. Place Mask over faerie, and stamp around bottom/left/right edges of card using Fern stamp from L.S.G. and Marvy Matchables Ink Pads in Yellow Green, Green and Light Green, beginning with the darkest colour (Green) and working towards the lightest colour.  I used a stamp positioner for this so the fern leaves were exactly where I wanted.  I also added a few small flowers, using green and purple chalk ink pad.
3. Create a Moon mask, using Eclipse tape and a circle punch, stick this over the faerie (I placed it near her head) - you will use this to keep that space white, so it looks moon-like.
4. Spray Glitz Spritz over masked faerie and moon, try not to spray directly over stamped leaves as the colour may run.  Spread liquid over card background with cotton bud (or finger) and drag over the edges of the ferns.  Dry with heat gun.
5. Remove masks and colour faerie with Copic colour combinations listed above.
6. Using an applicator sponge, apply Stonewashed Adirondack ink to the card edges where the sky appears, and use Meadow ink over the ferny areas, this will darken but not coler the stamping and help to create a frame effect for the central image.
7. Apply a very little amount of Magical Micas - Cathedral Pines, over the dress and let dry.
8. Apply a small amount of Foilz to the wings.
9. Using Liquid Pearls, fill in the white space of the moon.  To get the unusual pattern I carefully placed a piece of scrap paper over the wet liquid pearls, so the paper and the pearls barely touched, then I lifted the paper away - it made peaks and valleys in the liquid pearls.
10. Cut fern shaped Fabulous Filagree into 2 pieces, colour each piece with Magical micas and when dry coat with Stickles and cover with Glossy Accents.  Glue onto either side of card.
11. Attach brass fern charm to bottom of card and embellish with small purple crystal.
12. Stamp 'Have a magical day' over background using Gold metallic StazOn ink.
13. Highlight areas of scene with white paint pen.
14. Edge card front with Gold Krylon leafing pen.
    
15. Mount card front onto dark blue sparkle card and finally onto black card to finish.

If you would like to SEE the background being created and some close up footage of the finished card, you can do that on my YouTube Channel.

Diana Journal Page

This was a blast to create! 

I've been itching to use some of my new stamps from Cherry Pie for ages now and a random background in my journal provided the inspiration I needed to create this page.

Stamps used:

Cherry Pie

• Monolites
• Diana
• Winter Tree (Lg.)

Stampscapes

• Eerie Moon
• Sedge Bank
• Reeds

Other Materials:

• Prismacolor Pencils
• Golden Gel Medium
• Rainbow Pearl Foil and Adhesive embossing powder
• Brilliance Ink pad in Moonlight White
• ColorBox chalk ink pads: French Blue, Blue Iris and Creamy Brown
• Versamark ink pad in Black
• Adirondack Dabber: Gold, Black, Willow, Sage
• Magical Micas: Tibetan Poppy and Bells of Ireland
• Portfolio Watercolor Crayons

How this was Made

Step 1:

• Create background using Magical Micas and water.  Click this link to see how I did this on my YouTube Channel.

Step 2:

• Decorate background with Watercolour Crayons.  Click this link to see how I did this on my YouTube channel.

Step 3:

• Mix Magical Micas with Golden gel medium and decorate edges of journal page, stamp scene in middle of page and use Adirondack paints to finish off.  Click this link to see how I did this on my YouTube channel.

Stampscaped Egret Scene

Materials

• Stampscapes Stamps
  
  • Lilygrass
  • Tall Peaks
  • Moon rising
  • Lakeside Cove
  • Waterside Bluff (right)
• Beeswax Stamp
  
  • Nelumbium (Waterlily)
• Stamps Galore
  
  • Egret
• Memento Black Ink Pad
• Prismacolor Pencils
• Magical Micas: Alpine Ice Rose & Frosted Iris
• Inksentials white pen
• Card for matting scene

What I did:

Background Layer

1. I made a wash background using my Magical Micas, by adding a tiny amount of Magical Micas powder onto a craft mat, then I added a little water.  
2. I cut some white card to size (I use Nopa white smooth card) and smooshed this into the Magical Mica puddle until the entire card front was covered.
3. The card was then set aside overnight until completely dry and finally flattened with a craft iron.

This process created a beautiful subtle pink shimmery background for my card.

Scene 

1. Using black Memento ink pad I stamped the main images (lotus and egret), then I masked these off and stamped the remaining images to create the scene.
2. I used Prismacolour pencils to colour the images and kept adding more colour until the correct depth was achieved.
3. When finished adding colour I went over any areas I wanted to blend using a Prismacolour Blender pencil (this removes any lines and gently blends the colours).
4. I finished this off by adding a very light layer of sponged black Memento ink to the very edges to frame the image and draw attention to the centre of the scene.
5. Finally I added a few specks of white gel pen (Inkssentials brand) to emphasise areas where the moonlight might be hitting objects.
6. The scenic panel was then mounted onto coordinating card.

I have attached a video clip of my card close up, for those who would like a better view of the individual elements.

Third Challenge

Do something different with a previously made main image

OK - a few years ago I made a whole bunch of card fronts intending to enter an African swap - short story... the swap didn't go ahead and I had a bunch of scenic zebra images created.   I made some of the images into cards  at the time (eg: to the left), but had 3 left over  images - coloured, stamped and ready to go.   They have festered in my 'too-good-to-throw-out' draw ever since, no inspiration came to me for what else to do with them!

So the challlenge I set myself was to use these 3 pre-made main images and make them into new cards - turned out to be a bit more difficult than I originally thought.  

CARD 1

The first card I made was a simple slice-up of the original image.  I trimmed down the main image and was left with a much smaller panel which I then mounted onto funky white zebra patterned paper with a zebra striped ribbon.  This was mounted onto orange (coloured with Adirondack Distress Ink pad Dried Marigold) and then black card and finished with matt black brads and a funky velvet rub-on.  This card didn't require any additional stamping, just some creative layering.  

CARD 2

I really liked the ribbon and the pearly zebra paper from card no 1 - so I wanted to use these again in a different way.  I scrounged about and found a rejected image that I had created with that first batch of zebra cards, which was mounted over the scenic zebra stamped image - if you look really closely you can see parts of the stamped tree.  I mounted this panel onto a similar background to card no 1 and finished with some additional black ribbon and rub-ons.

Going OK - but I thought for my final project I would tackle something a bit more difficult.

CARD 3

The third card I created used over-stamping - basically I stamped right over the top of the older image and background.   This proved more difficult than I thought as some of the ink colours were distinctly different when stamped over such a strong orange colour - some were soaked up completely.

I used Stampscapes stamps for the starry sky and additional plants/trees and a mixture of chalk inks and dye inks along  with a little white brilliance ink to mist things up. 

I think I need to work on my mist technique as I feel that the misting is a little heavy on this, but I do like the card better with the additional stamping - I think it's more interesting to look at.  Once dry I mounted this onto coordinating orange and black card.

Do you have a favourite - original card, card 1, card 2 or Card 3?

Frosty Falls: Stampscaped Scene

OK - I love my Stampscapes stamps and even during my clearing out recently, these didn't even come under consideration.  I haven't been super happy with my previous Stampscaped efforts, so I thought I'd do a little research before beginning my next project.  I surfed around a bit on the Stampscapes site and had a look at how the fabulous Kevin places his light flecks and also had a good look at colours etc.  I sat down planned a scene and began - didn't quite go as planned, but I like the way it turned out - read on for more info.....

 

 Stamps Used:
All Stampscapes -

• Oak Branch
• Cascading Falls Lg
• Rocks and leaves
• Rock Duo sm
• Ledge
• Rocky Peaks
• Tall peak
• Milky Way Lg

Other Products:

• Adirondack Ink Pads: Cool Peri, Eggplant (mountains)
• Archival Versafine Ink Pads: Olympia Green (trees), Smokey Gray (rock), Onyx Black (darkening)
• ColorBox Ink Pad: Blue Iris (waterfall)
• Archival Brilliance Ink Pad: Moonight White (misting)
• Ranger inksentials white pen
• i-kan-dee Chalks

What did I do?

1. OK to begin with I made a real boo-boo - I stamped the mountains in a darker colour than the rock in the foreground - this looked really wrong, so I went and had a look at some of the cards that I really liked in the Stampscapes gallery - and what do you know - in most the images the backgrounds were lighter than the foreground images - so how to fix???
2. After adding all of the stamped elements I had a very stark image - not happy at all - I should have taken a pic it really looked awful.
3. I ploughed ahead and used i-kan-dee chalks to add some soft colour and to go over the starry sky and darken the ink colour.  Still didn't look right so I went over it all with darker chalks - sky, rocks, mountains and plants and added some darker shaded areas.  Still not right...
4. I made some areas I lighter with Moonlight White brilliance ink to add light and a misty effect.  Still not there 'sigh' now what???
5. In desperation I inked up a sponge with black versafine and started darkening areas around the edges of the image, then I darkened some of the sky, rocks and mountains with the black ink - very carefully.  Ten I added a few light flecks with the white Inksentials pen and added a little white to the mountain tops.  Finished.

Turns out I like it much better this way - I think I' improving from my first stampscaped efforts, though I still have a lot to learn.  You can see my efforts in the scenic gallery, be gentle with your comments, we all have to start somewhere :O)